Clamp for wire, rods, and the like



E. P. MUNTZ CLAMP FOR WIRE, RODS, AND THE LIKE May 23, 1933.

Filed June 7, 1932 .lnuentur E; -P- Tl'luntz WM;;

Patented May 23, 1933 PATENT OFFICE ERIC PERCIVAL MUNTZ, F HAMILTON, ONTARIO, CANADA CLAMP FOR WIRE, RODS, AND THE LIKE Application filed June 7, 1932. Serial No. 615,941.

My invention relates to improvements in clamps, for wire, rods and the like, and has been more particularly developed for use in the tying of concrete form work. The object of my invention is to provide a clamp which is of compact form and which can be readily attached and released, and a further and particular object of my invention is to furnish a cage element within the clamp and for retaining the chuck jaws in alignment so that the clamping action of such jaws upon the wire is always evenly distributed.

A still further object of my invention is to utilize the jaw locking element which protrudes from the clamp as the means whereby the clamp is secured to the form work and drawn up to tauten the wire or rod to which it is attached, and my invention also includes, in an alternative form, the provision of a resilient element w thin the clamp which acts upon the clamp aws so that they exercise their gripping function r when the clamp is initially positioned upon the tie wire or rod, such resilient pressure being afterwards made positive by a manual jaw locking element.

My invention consists of a clamp for wire, rods and the like, all as hereinafter more particularly described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in wh1ch Fig. 1 is a vertical cross sectlonal view through my clamp.

Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken through the line 22 of F1g. 1.

Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken through the line 3-3 Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the cage in which the chuck jaws are contained.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of the chuck jaws.

Fig. 6 is a similar view to Fig. 1 showing my alternative construction incorporating the resilient element, and

Fig. 7 is a cross sectional view through a fragmentary portion of concrete form work showing my clamp as it is positioned when in use.

Like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different views in the drawing.

My invention has been particularly evolved to permit the use of hard steel wire of great strength for the tying of concrete form work and for similar purposes. This wire, which is of high carbon steel, has a very great strength as compared to annealed wire and is now a commercial product. While this wire is greatly superior to annealed wire for the tying of concrete form Work, it heretofore has not been possible to use this wire as, of course, it is not susceptible to being readily bent for tying as is the case with annealed wire, and as tying in concrete work forms a large item in the labour and material costs'incidental to the construction of forms, I have evolved my clamp whereby this hard steel wire may be used and I have so designed my clamp 7 that the ultimate strength of the wire is not appreciably decreased at the clamping point.

My clamp, as illustrated in Fig. 1 of the drawing, comprises a housing 1 which is of cylindrical form and internally threaded. The housing 1 contains a j aw socket 2 which is threaded thereinto intermediately of its length. The inner jaw receiving portion of the socket is of truncated conical form and its inner end, which is of less diameter, is furnished with a central orifice 3 through which the rod or wire passes. Abutting the end of the socket containing the orifice 3, I :furnish a plug 4 having a bore 5 there through which forms a continuation of the 35 orifice 3. The plug is threaded into the housing 1 and formed upon its outer face with a squared spanner receiving portion 6 by means of which the clamp is held against rotation as shall be hereinafter explained. i

The jaw containing cage as illustrated in Fig. 4, is adapted .to be positioned within the jaw socket and comprises an upper ring 7 and a lower ring 8 connected together by a pair of diametrically opposed struts 9, the diameters of the rings 7 and 8 being substantially in the same ratio. as the diameters of the inner and outer ends of the pair of chuck jaws 10 which are seated between the rings 7 and 8 and adapted to each other.

move together or apart dependent upon the direction in which they are moved within the cup, in accordance with standard chuck construction. The provision of the cage in no way interferes with the radial movement of the chuck jaws 10 but retains such chuck jaws in transverse alignment so that they, at all times, exert an equal gripping pressure upon the contained wire or rod. The inner wire engaging faces 11 of the chucks are each formed with a central longitudinal groove 12'which is suitably serrated to furnish a non-slip ing grip upon the wlre.

The open end of the housing 1 is adapted to receive the end of a wale bolt 13 which is threaded thereinto to bear against the ring 8 of the chuck cage so that inward movement of the wale bolt against the cage has a tendency to move the cage forwardly into the socket thus pressing the jaws towards The wale bolt 13, which is formed with a central bore 14, is furnished with a pair of lock nuts 15 and 16 upon its outer end.

In the alternative form shown in Fig. 6, I follow the same principles of construction as in the clamp illustrated in Fig. 1 with the exception that in this form I provide a wale bolt engaging element 17 which is attached to the ring 8 ot' the cage. The element 17, which is slidable within the housing 1, has a stud receiving slot 18 extending thereacross tor the reception of a stud 19 extending from the end of the wale bolt 20 which is threaded through a plug 21 in the end of the housing 1. The stud 19 is formed with a head 22 which is movable within the slot 18 but cannot be longitudinally with drawn therefrom through the provision of the slot shoulders 23. A compression spring 24 is furnished between the element 17 and the plug 21 so that the cage and jaws always have a tendency to move into the socket. In this construction, as shown in Fig. 6, I do not show the plug 4 in the other end of the housing 1 but furnish a hexagon or squared spanner receiving portion 25 upon the outer face of the housing 1.

The operation of my device is as follows:

\Vhen inserting the tie wire end in my clamp as illustrated in Fig. 1, I unthread the wale bolt 13 so that it permits the jaw containing cage a movement out of the cup whereby the jaws are permitted an opening movement. The end of the wire 26 is then inserted into the clamp through the bore 5 and orifice 3 and as it passes into and through the cage the jaws are moved apart and merely rest upon the wire. If the wire is comparatively long it will pass from the V chuck jaws into the bore 14 ot' the wale bolt. The clamp is slid along the wire until the desired position is reached and the wale bolt 13 is then threaded inwardly in the housing 1 to bear against the ring 8 of the jaw cage thus forcing the cage into the jaw socket and the jaws into tight wedging engagement between the walls of the jaw socket and the wire upon which they are clamping. In performing this operation the lock nuts 15 and 16 are threaded together upon the wale bolt so that they can be utilized for rotating the wale bolt and the clamp is held against rotation by the use of a spanner upon the squared end 6. When it is desired to remove the clamp or readjust it upon the wire, the wale bolt is unthreaded from out of contact with the ring 8 thus taking the pressure from off the jaws.

In the type of clamp illustrated in Fig. 6, the wale bolt 20 is threaded from out of the housing 1 to take pressure from off the jaw cage and the wire is inserted through the orifice 8, it being understood that the wale bolt 20 is also formed with a bore 27 for the reception of the wire 26 if so desired.

It will be generally found that the pressure of inserting the wire against the jaws will be sufficient to move them rearwardly against the spring 24 whereby they can move sufiiciently far apart for the easy insertion of the wire, but in cases Where there is any difiiculty in overcoming resilient action of the spring the wale bolt 21 is threaded from out of the clamp a sutficient distance so that the head 22 upon the stud 19 engages the shoulders 23 ot' the element 17 thus drawing the element 17 and jaw cage away from the jaw cup. WVhen the wire has been inserted and is contained between the aws the clamp is slid along the wire until the desired position is reached and it will be found that immediately there is any tendency to pull the wire from out of the clamp or slide the clamp backwards on the wire that the movement'of the chuck jaws within the tapered socket under the spring 24 will be sufficient to retain the wire and clamp against disengaging movement relatively to each other.

\Vhen the clamp is finally positioned in its adjusted position to the Wire the wale bolt 20 is threaded inwardly so that its end bearsagainst its element 17, thus moving the jaw cage into the socket and tightly wedging the jaws upon the wire. When it is desired to remove the clamp or re-adjust it upon the wire the wale bolt 20 is loosened from out of contact with the element 17 which will, in most cases, permit the jaws to loosen upon the wire. If the jaws do not readily loosen the wale bolt 20 is threaded outwardly a further degree until the stud head 22 engaging the shoulders 23 draws the cage loose in the socket.

In Fig. 7 of the drawing, I show my clamp as it is used in tying concrete form work wherein 28 is one panel of the form, 25) the stud and 80 a pair of wales. The tie wire 26 extends from the panel at one side of the form and projects through an orifice 32 in the panel 28 at the other side of the form, such projecting portion being gripped with my clamp which, in turn, has its wale bolt 13 extending between the Walers 30 and provided with a washer or draw plate 33 through which it extends and against which the nut 15 bears to exert a pull upon the of the form adjacent the clamp. This fee ture is very necessary for accurately holding form work to line during construction, for if the form should tend to move in any place the concrete when placed against it will move it out until the restraining wire tie and clamp takes the strain. It will thus be understood that if the clamp should inadvertently slip forwardly upon the wire when the strain was released, that the tie would be shortened and hold its form out of alignment, The type of wire for which my clamp has been evolved is particularly desirable for concrete form work in that it is moderate in price and has a relatively large strength for a small diameter i. e. high carhon steel wire having a diameter of 0.187 inches has an ultimate strength of 5600 pounds and furthermore, as the diameter of "the wire is comparatively small as compared to threaded rods which have been in some cases used as the tying means for concrete forms, it is only necessary to furnish very small holes in the form panel for the reception of my tie wires, and this of course eliminates excessive mutilation of thepanels and thus permits them a much longer life than isordinarily the case. In fact where steel panels are used they can be provided with a number of differently positioned holes for the reception of my tie wires in any relation or position that may be required, the holes that do not contain wires being so small that they are of'no detriment and do not have to be filled.

While I have described my clamp as particularly designed for use in conjunction with hard wire for the tying of concrete forms, it is to be understood that it has many other uses and can be used for scaffolding work of any kind where wires may be suspended for supporting platforms and also for holding guy wires, for cold drawing of wire or rods or for picking up packages or bundles bound with wire and having the free end of the binding wire exposed to which the clamp can be attached and in fact for many other uses.

Although I have shown and described a particular embodiment of my invention it is to be understood that it is susceptible to any changes and alte 'ations which I may, at any time, deem necessary without departing from the spirit of my invention as set forth in the appended claims.

\Vhat I claim as my invention is:

1. In a retaining clamp of the character described comprising a casing having a socket therein of truncated conical interior and open at both ends, a plurality of chuck jaws slidably contained within the socket,

a pair of ring members positioned at the ends of the jaws, strut pieces extending from ring to ring between the jaws,-and a threaded jaw moving rod screwed into the casing concentrically with the socket for retaining the jaws in any set clamping position.

2. In a retaining clamp of the character described comprising a casing having a socket therein of truncated conical interior and open at both ends, a plurality of chuck jaws slidably contained within the socket, a pair of ring members positioned at the ends of the jaws, strut pieces extending from ring to ring between the jaws, and manually adjustable means protruding from the housing for retaining the jaws in any set clampmg position.

3. In a retaining clamp of the character described comprising a casing having a socket therein of truncated conical interior and open at both. ends, a plurality of chuck jaws slidably contained within the socket, a ring member movably contained within the socket and against which the end faces of the jaws are seated, means extending from the ring between the jaws for retaining the aws against movement relatively to the ring, and manually actuatable means movable within the casing and bearing against the ring.

4:. In a retaining clamp of the character described comprising a casing having a socket therein of truncated conical interior and open at both ends, a plurality of chuck jaws slidably contained within the socket, a pair of ring members positioned at the ends of the jaws, strut pieces extending e from ring to ring between the jaws, and manually actuatable means movable within the casing and bearing against one ring.

5. In" a retaining clamp of the character I described, the combination with a plurality of slidable chuck jaws contained within a socket in a housing, said socket having a sloping wall and open at both ends and a sliding jaw containing element contained within the housing, of a compression spring interposed between one end of the housing and the element, and a rod adjustably threaded into and protruding from the housing and adjustably exerting a pressure against the sliding element.

6. In a retaining clamp of the character described, the combination with a plurality of slidable chuck jaws contained within a socket in a housing, said socket having a sloping wall and open at both ends and a sliding jaw containing element contained within the housing, of a compression spring interposed between one end of the housing and the element, and a rod manually movable into and out of the housing and coupled to the jaw containing element.

7. In a retaining clamp of the character described comprising a casing having a socket therein of truncated conical interior and open at both ends, a plurality of chuck jaws slidably contained within the socket, a pair of ring members positioned at the ends of the jaws, strut pieces extending from ring to ring exteriorally of the jaws, and manually adjustable means protruding from the housing, for retaining the jaws in any set clamping position.

ERIC PERCIVAL MUNTZ. 

